"He was right in a certain way," Wilshere said as he prepared for Saturday's FA Cup final against Hull. "When I first burst onto the scene there was all this noise and then I got injured.

"I have had bad luck with injuries, but I can't keep saying I've been injured a lot. There comes a time when you stop being a kid and I think that's what he's referring to. 'He's young, he's got all this potential', but you have to start putting that potential in.

"This season I have improved a lot, scored a few more than I have in the past and got a few more assists. That side of things, you can keep the ball and you can look good but it's those stats that matter. That's what I have to build on."

Wilshere has never been shy of tackling issues - and opponents - head on and asked England coach Gary Neville for Scholes' number while still bristling from the attack.

"If it had come from a rubbish player I could say 'what are you talking about'," Wilshere said. "But it came from Paul Scholes and for me he was the best English midfielder of all time.

"So I wanted to get to the bottom of it. I spoke to him, he explained it a bit better and told me what he thought I should work on. We had quite a good chat. He is entitled to his opinion but I just wanted to know."

Wilshere, who has just overcome another injury, is hoping to go to the World Cup with England in buoyant mood but is not stressed about the style in which Arsenal end their season.

Wilshere said, reflecting on Arsenal's last trophy success back in 2005, said: "If I remember rightly, Manchester United were the better team and we won on penalties. We'd take that. We just want to win the game, that's really important.

"We've been here before in the Carling Cup. No disrespect to the Carling Cup but this is bigger than the Carling Cup. The FA Cup is a trophy that, when I grew up, you remember the FA Cup finals. I won the FA Youth Cup so it's right that we go on and win this. We don't have to prove we have leaders to win this - we just have to win it."

After enduring a tricky start to his Manchester United career, perhaps it is fair that Marcos Rojo celebrated so boisterously as he watched his first professional club Estudiantes beat fierce rivals Gimnasia